New Bedford 2nd mo 5th 1847

Your precious letter came to me last evening just as I
was going on to the platform to speak. It is a real comfort to
me to hear how heroic you are. I know that you are so, & you
would not act worthy of yourself to be childish. So far from being left [--
---]able in the work of Association, I am more so than ever be-
fore and I derive this augmentation of strength from you.
My mind is at ease, & given wholly to my business. New
energies impell me, & new motives urge me to action.
You asked me not long since whether it seemed any different
to go out as a husband, from going out [strikethrough] & [/strikethrough] a single man. Yes
there is all the difference which I expected there would be & more,
& that difference is all the right side. The purpose of all union
is to strengthen the members, to greater purposes and
and nobler efforts. It gives ambition the warmth
& gentleness & refinements of love. It universalizes love
and impels it beyond self. Man is an ambitious &
restless being in himself. He goes ever abroad after
new conquests & new fields of honor and under the
dominion of this illusion, becomes selfish tyranni-
cal & heartless. Love renders him generous, turns
ambition to noble ends & inspires a noble chivalry.
Woman is a being of love. Its tendency in her nature, is
to centralize all goodness & beauty, & to enshrine the object
of her devotion in her own bosom. Her feeling is, let us
live in the bowers of [sel?]tered love- withdraw from
the world into our own heaven. Ambition [strikethrough] ? [/strikethrough]
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wedded with love extends [strikethrough] the [/strikethrough] its sphere. [strikethrough] of the latter [/strikethrough] This
is the mystery of true marriage if there be any mys-
tery about it. I wish you could spend a day or two
here with me. I want you to see some of the folks & I
want they should see you. I tell them I am proud of my
wife, & am not ashamed to boast of her superiority over
all the women I ever saw. This is rather joking. I mean to
say that I keep thinking so within myself.
Last Monday Mr Allen & myself went to visit the Alms-house
in this Town. It is a horrible sight, to behold men & women
under the penitence of charity that [use?] in such a place de-
prived of all social advantages, & compelled to work,
securing nothing but a miserable support for it, [of?] if sick
& not able to labor, crowded into apartments where there
can be neither comfort nor sympathy. These were 
some of the most miserable & degraded beings imaginable,
inmates of this asylum(?) Men and women, who had worn
themselves out in the service of the rich, who had been spo-
liated of their industry & virtue were here sent to linger
out the remainder of their lives in slavery. They are deprived
of all true social existence. The men and women are
never allowed each other's society- not so much as
to eat together, because they have become so degraded
& brutal that such an indulgence would be abused.
And yet this is the best poor house that I ever saw.
It is built on a spacious plan- the rooms are large
and rather nice- the furniture simple, but what
there is of it is comfortable- the house is warmed with
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steam throughout- Their laundry establishment is the
best I ever saw- It is worth visiting as a sort of hint to what
may be done in a combined society. I saw poor sail-
ors who had just returned from long whaling voyages sick
& destitute of comfort, while the cargoes of oil which
their ships had brought in were fortunes to the
owners of the ships. I could not but feel degraded, almost
as low as the poor creatures around me. I would sooner
a friend of mind should die than go into even the New
Bedford Alms-house.   Wednesday night was fearfully
tempestuous and we had but a small audience. Mr A
occupied the evening in a criticism upon the present
form of society. Last evening I spoke about 1 (3/4) hours on
the positive side. I made a good speech even if [loss]
say it, & it told upon the audience. The audience was
not large but it was a good one- I cannot tell what
will be the issue yet. Perhaps the immediate re-
sults will not be so great as we thought appear-
ances at first warranted us to hope for. It is thought
that there will be a full audience to-night. Brisbane will be
here to speak. You entreat me to come home on Monday. I
should like to do so, you know dearest, if all appears right.
But you must not expect me, for I think I shall have
to go to Fall River. The Union will hardly like to al-
low my travelling expenses so many times over. I
think I shall be home after visiting Fall River- Allen
wants me to go to Providence before returning, but
that I cannot think of doing. I shall need a clean ward-
						robe by then.
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Now my dearest I am not willing to hear you hint that yr
bravery may possibly give out. It will not. You don't 
know how much good the kind manner in which
spoke of the Editorial business did me- I don't prefer
that position to all others. I wish to be in the place
where I can do most for the cause.

But the conducting of a paper would suit me bet-
ter than anything else which now offers. But this
laid on the table until I can see the friends at home
& the Executive board. I am not enthusiastic as you
might possibly suppose I should be. I am rather in-
different about because I have no idea our friends will
spare me from the field. Love to all dearest
			Thine own loving John

[address] Marianne Dwight Orvis
		Brook Farm
			West Roxbury
				Mass